Luke Plunkett

Here's a hilariously odd piece of corporate expression; it seems Nintendo has adopted an official gesture when its senior employees are mentioning the word "direct".

Tiny Cartridge's Eric has spotted that, too often for it to be a coincidence, when the word (part of Nintendo's term for its impromptu press briefings) "direct" is mentioned, the person saying it chops their hands very directly. Company president Satoru Iwata does it a lot, but so too does Bill Trinen, and even Reggie gives it a go.

What's awesome is that it's not just done in the English-language presentations. In Japanese briefings, Iwata does exactly the same thing when he says "chokusetsu", which of course means "direct".

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You can see some chopping in the pics above, or here's a video example. What you can't see is my hands chopping every time I type "direct". This thing is catchy!